SpaceX Sues Boeing and Lockheed Martin

WASHINGTON
-- Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is suing Boeing and Lockheed Martin
in federal court for conspiring to violate antitrust laws to corner the market
on U.S. government satellite launches.

The suit,
filed by SpaceX attorneys Oct. 19 in the U.S. District Court for the Central
District of California, comes as the Federal Trade Commission prepares to rule
on Boeing and Lockheed Martin's proposed merger of their government rocket
launch operations. The proposed joint venture, United Launch Alliance, provide
Lockheed Martin Atlas and Boeing Delta rockets for U.S. government launches.

SpaceX
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk confirmed Oct. 20 that his
company had filed suit against Boeing and Lockheed Martin, saying that the two
companies seek to prevent companies such as his from selling launch services to
the U.S. Air Force and other government customers.

SpaceX has
multiple launch contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense for the Falcon 1,
a small reusable rocket slated to make its launch debut before the end of the
year. In recent months, SpaceX has announced that it intends to build a much
larger rocket, the Falcon 9, that would compete directly with Boeing's Delta 4
and Lockheed Martin's Atlas 5 rockets. SpaceX says it already has a contract
for the first Falcon 9 launch, awarded by an unnamed U.S. government customer
that some launch analysts believe is an intelligence agency.

"Boeing and
Lockheed Martin have engaged in an unlawful conspiracy to eliminate
competition, and ultimately to monopolize, the government space launch business
and prevent SpaceX and other potential new entrants from competing in that
business," the court documents read.

Boeing and
Lockheed Martin could not immediately be reached for comment.